By Simeon Wynn - Looking at the state of world economic and geo-political affairs at the start of 2023, it’s hard not to approach this year with a decidedly less rosy outlook than perhaps we might have started recent years with. No matter where you look, it feels almost impossible to escape tales of economic woes, falling consumer confidence, and spiralling prices. Need I say more?

Of course, much of this is true, and down to real, world-changing events that have happened in recent months. As I sit here in rural Norfolk, deep in the UK countryside, I can think of at least a few country-specific decisions that have led to inordinately high prices in some areas here and a lack of supply in others. 

But, despite all this, there is one thing we should all be smiling about – whatever doom and gloom you may have heard about the e-commerce industry has frankly been greatly exaggerated. 

The e-commerce industry is still growing 

Yes, that’s right. Across almost all markets and in most major verticals, the e-commerce industry is still booming. On Black Friday 2022, total online sales were up 2.3% when compared to 2021. Shopify also reported over 52 million consumers worldwide purchased from a brand using their technology. Meanwhile, Barclaycard Payments have reported a 3.2% increase in transactions in the UK compared to last year. Across the EU, e-commerce sales are projected to reach over €600 billion in 2023.

There was a worry as we headed into the BFCM period that consumers were getting tired of online discounts and might prefer to look in-store for the best deals. But what did we see? Consumer habits didn’t just temporarily change over the pandemic; they permanently shifted, in a seismic way, to the point that over 80% of consumers now research products online as a first port-of-call, regardless of any deals they may have seen in person. 

So what does this mean for e-commerce brands? Well, there is certainly opportunity out there and space for growth, but only for the brands doing it right. The modern consumer is the best-informed, most active, and least-loyal iteration of a consumer we have seen yet. Successful brands know this and will be employing a few key strategies in 2023 to capitalise on the moment. 

First and foremost, you must focus on the customer. Now more than ever, consumers are looking for a seamless, convenient shopping experience and won’t accept anything less. With so much uncertainty around living costs, you need to be as honest as you can be about your shipping times, your return policies, and any changes to your operations. Something as simple as not offering a refund on import duties and taxes for cross-border trade can drastically affect sales, something Duty Refunds are poised to help you with. 

2023 will also be the year to embrace new technologies. From augmented reality to chatbots to the continued growth of social commerce on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, there is an increasing number of ways to reach your customers directly and make their experience as smooth as possible. 

Whatever you do this year, enjoy the challenge, and I wish you every success. 

The post Focusing on your customers has never been more important appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

By Salesupply - The footwear, fashion, and accessory brand Tamaris is a big name in Europe with an online presence in 25 European countries. The German brand is still growing and has further expansion plans.

At the time of this interview, Tamaris was expanding its e-commerce into Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Greece. How do you create the best customer service experience for your customers when you're active in that many markets? We met with Fabian Schreiber, Ecommerce  Coordinator at Tamaris, to talk about the importance of adapting international customer care operations to local preferences.

The importance of speaking the local language

The website of Tamaris is available in 25 European countries. In most of these countries, the website is adapted to the local language. Customer service, however, isn’t widely localized yet. Since the launch of its e-commerce business, its customer service Tamaris has been available in three languages: German, English, and French. “These languages formed the basis for our international webshops, so at that time it was a no-brainer,” Fabian explains. 

With the knowledge and experience of operating in such an international way, Tamaris focuses more and more on providing its customers with a fully localized experience, including payments, logistics, and customer service. “Through our customer service, we are in direct contact with our customers. This personal experience with the Tamaris brand is important and being able to offer this in the customer's local language is vital” says Fabian. Besides the aforementioned languages, the next market where Tamaris fully localized its customers' service experience was Italy.

Native Italian customer care

Last year, Tamaris expanded its online business to Italy, a market with high growth potential for a fashion brand like Tamaris. Italy is also a market where localized customer service is of the highest importance for e-commerce success. In addition to quality and price, for Tamaris two factors were key in the selection of a customer service partner: project launch time and available customer care languages. “We plan to add more local support languages to our offering and we don’t want to complicate our operations by working with several service providers. We were looking for a partner that could offer customer service in multiple languages. That is why we decided to start our partnership with Salesupply and it has proven to be a good decision.”

Outsourcing customer service while remaining in control 

“While we outsourced our Italian customer service completely to Salesupply, it never felt like we lost control, on the contrary”, Fabian continues. “Salesupply empowered us to remain in control with a personalized training session, real-time insights, and reporting”. The training module of Salesupply is custom-made in close cooperation with the client. The client decides on the training program and its content. “We started with a four-hour training session in which we introduced the agents to the essence of the Tamaris brand, the way we communicate with our customers, and how we prefer to solve issues,” Fabian explained. “It is crucial that the agents are able to communicate to the end customers as part of our brand”.

Every two weeks Tamaris meets with the project team of Salesupply to discuss possible issues, improve agent information and identify process improvements based on customer signals. “The communication is clear and uncomplicated, in addition to the meetings, I receive a monthly report and I have full access to the customer service dashboard,” Fabian adds. “The dashboard gives us real-time insights into the issues that are affecting our end customers.”  

Further localized expansion

Tamaris plans to expand into further  European markets in the near future and will do so with localized customer support. They are currently preparing to launch native customer service in Greece, Poland, and the Czech Republic, together with Salesupply. “I think that for every online shop that wants to expand cross-border and needs to speak the local languages, Salesupply is the perfect customer service partner”, Fabian says. 

The post Tamaris adds local customer service for international growth appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Automation, seamless tracking & execution, virtual try-on,  and keeping your consumer at the center, are some of the key elements behind Unilever's success in the complex and massive Indian market. A market that, on the retail battlefront, is expected to amount to 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2026, up from 883 billion dollars in 2020, according to Statista. 

That’s why today we join forces with our partners at eTail Asia to present you with another amazing interview from the cycle of exclusive interviews with industry leaders from the e-commerce world!  

Today we talk with Anvesha Poswali, Head of Digital & eCommerce Home Care from Unilever, to learn from her experience how you can keep the customer always in the center, how you can guarantee and improve the future of India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company, and what trends we must keep under our radar in the competitive D2C business. 

Unilever in India: 90 years of heritage 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Unilever?

I am a passionate digital marketer, having been In the industry for over a decade. I started my career with Google & have worked with Asian Paints & L’Oreal in the past. Currently, I lead digital marketing & e-commerce for the Home Care business group for Unilever in India.

With nearly 90 years of heritage in India, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company. On any given day, nine out of ten Indian households use one or more of our brands, giving us a unique opportunity to build a brighter future. We are known for our great brands, the positive social impact we create, and our belief in doing business the right way.

Unilever CEO Alan announced moving to five category-focused business groups in 2022, what are the trends you have noticed to cause this shift, and what does Unilever hope to achieve?

As Alan Jope puts it, “Our new organizational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we see in the performance of our business. Moving to five category-focused Business Groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.”

What are some of Unilever’s D2C strategies to expand your business and reach new customers?

FMCG companies have historically known what & how much was bought, but they did not know enough about the individual consumer that had bought their brand. D2C gives us a great opportunity to interact with the end consumer directly, and closely understand her behavior & needs.

However, the majority of our business is driven via other channels, and it will continue to be like that. We look at D2C as a complementary channel to drive growth & use it mainly to drive our niche & premium products that can provide a differentiated user experience on these channels. 

What are the major trends you see concerning the intersection of D2C and technology today?

Consumers are increasingly looking to buy experiences & not just products. Hence, D2C channels need to provide that rich experience to the consumer. Also, the expectation with respect to customer service & last mile delivery is pretty high, hence companies need to excel at the basics first. 

Technology here becomes both an enabler & a disruptor. It is inevitable to drive the brilliant basics through automation, seamless tracking & execution & driving media efficiencies. At the same time, technology also plays a massive role in creating distinctive & enhanced experiences on the web, which helps the brand stay ahead of the curve. Few examples bring virtual try-on, immersive store experience & dynamic creative optimization.

Strategies and lessons learned

What are some offline & online marketing strategies adopted by Unilever?

HUL Home Care invests heavily in building brand equity & driving brand purpose. Building meaningful, purpose-led brands that deliver strong performance & growth is the mantra. Much of the investment goes behind the television to drive brand equity. 

There are also media investments made on digital channels for the upper funnel, mid-funnel & lower funnel metrics. We make significant investments in driving reach & frequency and then remarketing to this audience using performance marketing on relevant channels. The crux lies in outlining clear objectives, KPIs, deployment strategy & platform. 

Join 70+ senior speakers and 400+ attendees for 3 days of networking and interactivity!

What have you learned from the journey so far?

I have worked across different verticals like Travel, Beauty & Home Care & there is one common thread across all – the basics of marketing do not change & it is all about keeping your consumer at the center. The platforms keep evolving & tech innovations keep coming in, but it is about making smart choices about what makes sense for your business & will drive the maximum impact. 

One needs to be up to date with the latest developments & think innovatively. The Test & Learn approach is critical if you want to make significant progress in digital. It is all about striking the balance between what you know will work & placing some bets on what might work & learn along the way.

What Anvesha Poswali will be sharing at eTail Asia 2022 

“At Etail Asia, I spoke about how to build a bulletproof D2C brand as a part of a panel discussion. It was a very interesting discussion with different perspectives and thoroughly enjoyed the engagement”

What Anvesha Poswali wants to learn about at the eTail Asia 2022 

“A lot of discussions happened around the new technologies in the market with respect to Ecom & those were really interesting conversations. What makes this event unique is the diversity of speakers & delegates it brings together, which sparks enriching conversations & you go back having learned so much new stuff. 

The icing on the cake is the wonderful set of solution providers, who share all about the new technologies they have to offer & also how they can help the business. You go back with some great options for future tech partners to drive business growth”

The post eTail Asia Exclusive Interviews: Anvesha Poswali, leading the home products market in India appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Albert Heijn developed an algorithm that takes various factors into account. It calculates the best price to eliminate unsaleable products and reduce waste. The algorithm factors include location, bonus offers, weather conditions, historical sales performance and in-store stock. The products are accompanied by electronic price tags that show two prices: the regular price and discount at a specific expiration date.

Albert Heijn strives to reduce food waste with 50% by 2030

Anti-waste company Wasteless advised Albert Heijn for the test. Reducing food waste is an important aspect of the sustainability strategy of Albert Heijn. The supermarket chain aims to eliminate at least half of the waste across the food chain by 2030. Other aspects of the sustainability goals concern development projects in Africa and setting up a closed, sustainable and transparent dairy chain with its own farmers.

The post Albert Heijn uses artificial intelligence to fight food waste appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Consumers want to try an item out before purchasing, which is why interactive product visualization is on the rise. These technologies will create a more sensory online shopping experience. This will give the consumer the chance to see, understand and experience a product before making a purchase.

According to the CEO of Emersya, Aurélien Vaysset, interactive 3D visualization gives freedom to consumers to explore a product online the same way as they can in-store.

The chances that a consumer will actually purchase a product, will improve. Philipp Krambeer of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXCITE says: "Product visualization can instill a sense of ownership even before interaction with a physical product takes place, this typically leads to higher conversion rates."

Customization

Another powerful tool along the consumer’s journey is customization, which enhances brand loyalty and increases participation. This process helps to create a relationship between the company and its customers. According to Krambeer, vital data can be collected to target product preferences to (for example) geographic locations and gender preferences.

More and more interactive product visualizations are coming to the mobile space. Key to the field’s success will be developing technologies. According to Keith: "We will see more use of virtual reality and augmented reality as it relates to product visualization. Amazon recently released a video where you can use augmented reality to see how products would look in your house before buying them."

Our future is all about mobile. Emerging devices and channels will bring changes in the way that consumers research products via their mobile devices before making a purchase.

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There might be more reasons why the delivery does not add up to the customer’s expectations. The research only focused on four of the most common delivery failure scenarios, such as:

• Failed first delivery – re-delivery is required.
• Failed first delivery – collection by the customer.
• Late delivery – not delivered within the expected time-window.
• Order lost – a replacement has to be sent.

The estimated cost of the first three groups combined (failed first-time, on-time, every-time delivery) turned out to be over 1.85 billion euros in 2018.

Improvement

Statistically speaking, the rate of failed deliveries has improved over the past couple of years. The average level of failed attempts was 4.65% in 2014. From March 2018 until February 2019, this rate has decreased to an average of 2.77%.

This decrease is mainly due to the introduction of solutions that improve the delivery process. Some examples of these solutions are the prediction of delivery time, deferring delivery to a more convenient location or time and click & collect.

However, the costs of these failed deliveries still remain high due to increasing customer expectations - to which the retailer keeps adapting.

The post Failed deliveries cost industry €1.85 billion ($2.08) every year appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Introducing Zalando Plus

The popular fashion platform plans to further strengthen this positive development by deepening customer relationships with Zalando Plus, which is available for all customers in Germany. The company is currently running a trial for the project in Switzerland, with France and Italy to follow within the next twelve months. Co-CEO Rubin Ritter said: “Our clear customer focus has paid off in the first quarter, as we made further headway to build the starting point for fashion in Europe.”

Partner Program

Zalando continued to capture market share in the first quarter of 2019: revenue increased by 15.2% to 1.4 billion euros. Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle achieved a positive adjusted profit of 6.4 million euro. As the platform business continues to gain traction, the company continues to successfully scale its services for partners. Brands intensifying their usage and new partners joining the program resulted in strong growth of Zalando’s Partner Program.

In the first quarter, about 30% of all Partner Program orders were fulfilled through Zalando Fulfillment Solutions (ZFS). The online fashion giant will further strengthen and expand Zalando Payments Solutions (ZPS) with their newly acquired e-money licence. This will improve payment transactions on the Zalando platform. David Schröder, CFO, is said to be happy with the financial results in the first quarter.

“The results show a strong focus on growth and are in line with annual guidance. The fashion platform will continue to invest in areas of the business that have high added value for our customers,” he concluded.

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When consumers choose to buy a product offline instead of on an online shop, it is mainly because they prefer to see the products they want to purchase in real life first. Four years ago, the main concern was the protection of personal data.

However, just like in 2015, 40% of people still consider the protection of their personal data as a reason not to purchase products online. The group of offline product viewers, on the other hand, has increased. According to research done by GfK, currently, 44% of respondents indicate that they prefer to view products first and that they, therefore, do not buy online.

Brick-and-mortar shops

Another reason to shop offline rather than visit an online shop is that strolling through the shopping streets and visiting the brick-and-mortar shops gives pleasure. Approximately 30% of the consumers named this reason. That is an increase of six percentage points, compared to the previous study from 2015.

Furthermore, 40% of the consumers surveyed consider delivery costs another reason not to buy something online. They instead prefer to wait and buy the product in a shop. Compared to the previous survey, this accounts for an increase of six percentage points as well.

Consumers still want free delivery on online shop

No less than 87% believe free delivery is a good reason to make more online purchases in the future. That, even though the online retail industry is slowly but surely moving away from free deliveries and -returns. For example, Zalando has already announced in several European countries that it will no longer offer free delivery.

Delivery costs are a stumbling block all over Europe. Almost half of the Europeans think that delivery costs are a reason to abandon their online purchase. This makes purchasing a product offline even more attractive.

The post Ability to physically see products increasingly important appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

H&M, a clothing retailer with shops present in over 70 countries globally, decided that free shipping is unsustainable for profitability. In sixteen of the countries that the retailer operates in, H&M has introduced a loyalty membership. However, they have now started introducing a minimum order amount for their members if they want free shipping.

The H&M Membership programme has two levels, basic- and plus-member. Based on how many points a customer has earned during the past year, they will be split up in either one of them. In the UK, basic members will have to spend at least £20 in order to receive free shipping (or free click and collect). In Germany (€22) and Sweden (200 Swedish Crowns), this minimum order level is equivalent.

Must have for customer experience

Free shipping used to be a must-have customer experience for retailers, not only on their own platforms but on marketplaces as well. However, profits are tightening and costs are continuously increasing for retailers. It is therefore very likely that other sellers and brands will follow H&M by limiting free shipping (either economy or express) and start tying minimum sizes to orders.

The post H&M to limit free shipping because of sustainability appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

It still seems that, due to the current state of last-mile delivery practices, there still are darker ramifications, specifically the effects of deliveries on consumers' work-life balance. 32% of respondents who work full or part-time had to take official leave to wait for a delivery. Moreover, more than one in five said it cost them money as they could not go to work due to a service or parcel delivery. With 75% of the UK population currently in full or part time employment, having flexibility is becoming increasingly important.

According to the report, based on a statistically representative 2,000 respondents across the UK, 75% of overall respondents are available for delivery availability between 05:00, until 22:00. This extended window for deliveries is in contrast with the set up for delivery firms who typically operate between 07.30 and 19.30, a twelve-hour window which still misses out on 42% of shopper-acceptable delivery times.

Tim Andrew, CEO and Co-Founder of Localz, commented: “Today, delivering customer satisfaction means more than just delivering. As this research shows predicting and meeting individual requirements, aspirations and expectations are complicated. Each customer has his or her own ICurve and those delivery services which fail to take this into account can expect to go the way of High Street shops."

To read the full report, follow this link.

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